Wrongfully arrested teenager caught by police on heroin charge

Seya killing

March 13, 2016, 9:49 pm

By Norman Palihawadana

A schoolboy arrested on false charges and released in connection with the killing of five-year-old Seya at Kotadeniyaya was taken into custody by Divulapitiya police for allegedly consuming heroin in a den with two others on Saturday.

Suspect Suranjan Pradeep’s parents claimed that the police were trying to frame the teenager on drug charges as he had filed a fundamental rights petition in the Supreme Court against the police for arresting him without an iota of evidence.

Later the alleged real killer Saman Jayalath was arrested by the police and he admitted to the killing in the Court.

The serious blunder by the long arm of the law in implicating the boy in the rape and murder of a little girl had had an adverse effect on his school career as the police went on a media blitz without conclusive evidence and it was a stigma on him, his parents said.

The police say they acted on a tip-off and arrested the teenager in a heroin den and everything has been videoed.

The police said he had 17 mg of heroin in his possession at the time of his arrest.